CS4CA USA 2019 Post-Event Write Up.
On March 26th-28th 2019, the CS4CA USA summit returned to Houston for its 7th edition, attracting over 300 cybersecurity experts from across America’s Oil & Gas, Energy, Utility, Water, Power, and Maritime industries. IT and OT security professionals exchanged lessons learned and assessed common challenges in safeguarding their critical assets over panel debates, roundtable discussions, and informal chats over networking breaks.
I was really surprised – I’ve been in the IT security industry for over 20 years and I thought ‘sure, I can chair this event… I know this stuff.’ And then I went there and it was an eye opening experience. I met players in the security field who I didn’t know existed. I heard perspectives that excited me about the opportunities for security in the OT space and which I had never come across before… – Dan Wittig, CISO at Louisiana-Pacific Cord and chair of CS4CA USA 2019.
This year’s highlights included:
• A Review of the Threat Landscape Across the United States, a keynote presentation by Max Everett, CIO at the Department of Energy; analyzing how the growth of network and communication systems has affected companies’ cyber security postures and their visibility across the enterprise.
• Joining Resources to Evaluate Threats and Defending U.S. Critical Infrastructure, a presentation by Chad Adams, Senior Cybersecurity Advisor at the Department of Homeland Security, who made a strong case for tighter private-public collaboration to support stronger national and cyber security.
• Automation as a Key Enabler in Leveraging A.I. for IoT Security, a joint presentation by Schlumberger’s Apurva Mohan, IIoT Cyber Security Lead & Principal Security Architect, and Himali Saxena, Security Automation Lead; exploring their hopes and worries surrounding the role of A.I. in security.
• An intimate and practical cyber security workshop led by Dr. Sujeet Shenoi, form the University of Tulsa, who proposes that infrastructure assets must integrate science, technology and policy to design robust security solutions against advanced attackers.
I really enjoyed how Checkpoint’s talk laid out OT security environments nicely and clearly; how Dragos’ speaker was full of energy and passion explaining advanced attackers; and how PAS’s keynote proposed an exciting and energized approach to combining IT and OT security layers to bring safety to the forefront of security. I talked with the majority of vendors during networking breaks. At one point, I actually called my company and said ‘Pause that project! We might have to rethink how we’re doing things.’ –Dan Wittig.
A big thank you to 2019 Sponsors: PAS, Fortinet, Dragos, Indegy, Tripwire, tdi Technologies, Check Point Software Technologies, Forescout, IBM Security, F-Secure, Claroty, Dispel, Illumio, Darktrace Industrial, Honeywell, NCC Group, CyberX, Silverfort, DVN.GL, Tenable, Owl Cyber Defense, Gate Scanner, Duo Security, Nozomi Networks, Blackberry, Vericlave, Saudi Aramco, and Security Gate.
If you couldn’t attend this time, don’t worry… this is an annual event! CS4CA USA 2020returns to Houston on March 24th-25th. Early Bird tickets are currently available for $999 – Secure yours here.
Watch this year’s video to take a peek inside this exclusive event; join CS4CA’s LinkedIn Group to connect with cybersecurity leaders; and follow the CS4CA Showcase Page to stay informed about upcoming summits and relevant content.
